"I I miss my partner, we've just hatched a clutch of eggs and I won't get to see them again I'm almost glad I'm going to war; I won't have to live with the burden for too much longer."

"We could survive; you might get to see them yet."

"Really? I may have lived this long Kek but I'm not a Sangheili, I'm an Unggoy: the whipping boy of the Covenant army and target practise for everyone else."

"Grunt, quiet!" A particularly fierce Sangheili barked, glaring at the pair with contempt. Goj nodded fearfully and turned away from Kek, neither had to be told twice. Kek could understand Goj's pain but, fortunately, had never experienced it. He had taken a solemn vow that he would never father children, he had never believed himself able to cope with the thought of being torn from them nor the thought of them being sent to war and killed. No, Kek had planned his life to end the way it had began: pointlessly and without meaning.

Of all the things that one could complain about being cramped in a drop ship, waiting to die, the only thing that bothered Kek was the smell. His acute senses and the Jiralhanae's less than acute stench were making the whole journey rather more uncomfortable than he had planned. All six of them were sweating like an injured human in a room full of Kig-Yar. Kek couldn't help but wish they'd stop, or better yet kill the Sangheili and in the confusion, he could escape and start a new life on the run. He could imagine it now, at first life would be hard but he'd scavenge spare methane tanks from dead Unggoy and treaty the humans with information about the Covenant. Kek was quite proud that he could speak human; he had mastered English, Hungarian, Russian and had even learned a few good phrases in several other human languages too. They would definitely come in handy when dealing with humans, unless they were French. Kek, reflecting on his abilities, knew that he really should have been issued to communications however; he had preferred the battlefield. His plan couldn't really work if he was stuck in deep space or on High Charity.

"We're nearly there, be ready," the Sangheili called to the eagerly waiting crew. They were going to be one of the first twenty Phantoms deployed so they had assigned as many troops as possible to the first push. In Kek's alone, there were four Jiralhanae, a Sangheili, twelve Unggoy and six Kig-Yar. All intent on wiping the planet clean of the so-called "heretics" as they were attempting to take an important religious artefact from a planet they called Persephone, the planet itself had a tiny colony of a few thousands but the artefact was far from it. Kek had hoped that it might be spared, however he wasn't counting on the covenant showing mercy.

Before Kek knew it, the drop ship had come to a stop. He could hear the sounds of bullets and shells hitting the fuselage and began to quiver. The doors opened slowly, allowing Kek to see the full human army: a few hundred in total. The Unggoy at the side gun gave them impressive cover fire for what seemed like an incredibly inaccurate and almost useless decoration. Kek wasn't the first to jump, as other Unggoy pushed pass him to get their slice of the action. Goj gave Kek a reassuring nod and they, followed by the Sangheili, dived for soft earth.

The roar of battle hit Kek all at once and his initial reaction was to dive behind a rock and cry. Kek was not a coward however; he stood and joined his squad. "Grunts draw their fire while I and the Jiralhanae flank around and take them from the side," the Sangheili cried over the gunfire. Kek quivered slightly but felt uplifted at the arrival of several over phantoms. The humans had cornered themselves at the mouth of a huge tunnel carved into the side of a canyon. They had obviously been excavating for several days, as there were many defensive outposts and mounted guns. Kek now knew why Goj had been so pessimistic; they were going to have to charge the enemy head on.